Yes, Mr President

Dash and I were waiting at Violet's bus stop this afternoon, after the kids' first day back at school and Kindy after the holidays. He was chattering away, filling in the three minute period of stillness we get between the pickup-at-his-bus-stop, drive-13-minutes-to-her-bus-stop, pick-Violet-up-and-head-the-20-minutes-home routine we do on Kindy days.

To distract him from the latest bit of war-literature he had nabbed from school, we were flipping through a women's magazine admiring the dresses (I like to keep him well-rounded). After deciding that Jennifer Love Hewitt was wearing the nicest frock on the red carpet, we chanced upon the token 'serious' article in the glossy publication.

.

"Mum?" Dash asked, brow furrowed.

"Hmmm," I responded absently.

"Who is that pretty lady?"

"That's Mrs Obama, Dash. Isn't she lovely?"

"Oh yes! I like her smile...

And who is that man beside her?" he adds as an afterthought.

"Why that is MR Obama darling - he's quite an important man, you know."
"Really? What does he do?"

My son stares hard at the photo of the most famous face in the world.

"Well, he's the President of the United States," I explain.

Small silence.

"But what does that mean?" he asks intently, eyes unwavering on the page before us.

"Well, he leads one of the biggest, most powerful countries in the world."

Dash's eyes go quite wide (and if you know Dash, that means there is very little room for anything else on his face!)...

I wait with anticipation for his reaction to this announcement.

He doesn't disappoint.

"You mean...

You mean, everybody in the whole 'Nited States has to, umm,

like, tidy up before the clock chimes when HE says so?"

"Yep, mate," I said with barely a quaver in my voice...

"That's pretty much it."

Oh, Obama!

As Mr Obama made his rousing speech today, I was sleeping. I think you had to get up at 2.30am to hear or see the Inuguration live. I did catch excerpts all day on the radio however, as I made a six hour round trip to Rockhampton to pick up essentials for our AI program (artifical insemination - another post on that one kids!).

...

I was impressed and inspired and uplifted and all the things I was supposed to be by that speech. The man is an orator. No question. I have tried my hand at speech writing in the past, and it's not that easy, getting the balance right, the cadence, the tone. And the facts (although these weren't foremost in the bits I heard, I have to say).

...

The new leader of the Western World would be a dream to write for. He sells it. This speech reminded me very much of Martin Luther King in its feel. The way he delivers his words. The rhythm. It's kind of mesmerising. It feels... well, for want of a better word, almost evangelical.

I totally felt like singing "Halleluja!" at intervals.

Freaked me right out.

Cause the good Lord knows I'm a bit more laid back in my religious and political expression that that! But still, I was moved. And yet my logical, cynical half reminds me of how peripheral Australia is to American concerns (politically at least) at the moment... I certainly feel a very long way from Washington and its marching bands and it's ten presidential balls!

I am very interested to know how the Presidential Inauguration (or as our local radio host and larrikan put it: The Innoculation) affect you guys? Aussies, Americans, Canucks, Kiwis, Poms... did it rock your world? Or did it leave you lukewarm? Or, like me, not quite sure... wanting to believe it all, waiting to see What Happens Next.